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I love the app “seek” by iNaturalist for finding out more about bugs and plants and such. https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/seek_app https://www.inaturalist.or

I love the app “seek” by iNaturalist for finding out more about bugs and plants and such. https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/seek_app https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/seek_app

daveslash 4y ago
I am completely addicted to iNaturalist. I haven't discovered any new species, but I've learned a lot. Not too long ago there was some news about some high school kids having used it to discover two new species of scorpion. It claims to be a social network, but it's user interface isn't engineered to keep your attention like others do - so there's a little bit of a learning curve to really figure out how to get the most out of it, but I'm a total addict now. [0] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/these-california-teens-discovered-two-new-scorpion-species-180980827/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/these-california-t...
- flandish 4y ago
  I totally agree! I use both of their apps and sometimes the bird apps by Cornell. iNaturalist claims “seek” uses on device “ai” to help find species.
  - daveslash 4y ago
    I have the app on mobile, but I really don't use it... I shoot all my photos with a traditional camera and upload them to the website. It might sound silly, but I'm approaching it like Pokemon - gotta catch em all! I'll identify some taxon and then try to go get as many species as possible. For example, I'm now aware of at least 5 species of Sea Urchin local to me - I've got 3 on iNat. I've seen the other 2, but didn't get a photo, but I know how to find them so I'm headed back out. I didn't even know there were at least 5 here, let alone be able to name them. It's intellectually really addicting.... Something that surprised me is how many subspecies there are of checks notes everything! It almost seems like in the narrowest sense, almost everything is endangered (if you're considering subspecies and phenotype). Very interesting stuff. I promise I'm not a paid promoter!
    - flandish 4y ago
      Oh neat idea! I am most often mobile - but might try this approach. The Seek app is slow to start and has a warning dialog every time.
      - daveslash 4y ago
        Pro-tip: If you're uploading on the web browser and your pic doesn't have GPS coordinates, set the location before trying to identify the species. Setting the location helps the AI limit it's suggestions to the geographic area. Another buried feature is being able to view your observations and species in a tree view. Go to Dashboard -> Profile -> Species (under your profile picture) Here's mine [0]. I really like how I can drill down the taxon tree and filter to see just species and/or observations at any level of the tree. Edit: Oh, and be careful if you're worried about metadata in your pictures. iNat doesn't strip it out. I actually kind of like that -- after poking around, it helped me identify my next camera purchase. But Somebody could totally dox me (well, de-anonify me) with the metadata in some of my pictures.... [0] https://www.inaturalist.org/lifelists/dolfindave?view=tree&tree_mode=full_taxonomy https://www.inaturalist.org/lifelists/dolfindave?view=tree&t...
        flandish 4y ago
        Ohh cool. Thanks for the insight! Yeah a photo in a park is fine… a photo in a home, maybe different lol.
        shagie 4y ago
        When I've done GPS stuff with photos in houses, I've lopped off decimal digits until the circle which it represented was sufficiently large enough. I typically lop to one decimal digit to give "close enough, but not exact". http://wiki.gis.com/wiki/index.php/Decimal_degrees http://wiki.gis.com/wiki/index.php/Decimal_degrees
        daveslash 4y ago
favaq 4y ago
Is there any website or app or something that by inputting where I live it gives me a list of wildlife (like insects) that surround me? I've been seeing the same bugs, birds, etc my entire life and I can name practically none of them.
- flandish 4y ago
  Try the Seek app! It’s real good at the job of going from pic to species!
- dendrite9 4y ago
  The inaturalist one lets you filter by what is near you as well as family, genus, kingdom etc. I wish it were easier to see for example what trees, spiders, algae and birds are in my area but that is probably a weird niche request. I used the local search to figure out what trees we saw near the shore in a place where the salt and wind stunted them beyond immediate familiarity. Especially cool is seeing the mushroom and fungi people find around where I live.
- pvaldes 4y ago
  Books are more reliable in nature than phone reception
mijoharas 4y ago
Oh, this is great! I use the Cornell bird app from time to time, but having something for plants and insects as well sounds awesome!
ascotan 4y ago
This app is fantastic. It's great to get children to explore the outdoors. My kids also love to trick it by taking pictures of hamburgers which get misidentified as mushrooms. So it's both informative and entertaining.

I love the app “seek” by iNaturalist for finding out more about bugs and plants and such. https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/seek_app https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/seek_app

daveslash 4y ago

I am completely addicted to iNaturalist. I haven't discovered any new species, but I've learned a lot. Not too long ago there was some news about some high school kids having used it to discover two new species of scorpion. It claims to be a social network, but it's user interface isn't engineered to keep your attention like others do - so there's a little bit of a learning curve to really figure out how to get the most out of it, but I'm a total addict now. [0] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/these-california-teens-discovered-two-new-scorpion-species-180980827/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/these-california-t...

flandish 4y ago
I totally agree! I use both of their apps and sometimes the bird apps by Cornell. iNaturalist claims “seek” uses on device “ai” to help find species.
- daveslash 4y ago
  I have the app on mobile, but I really don't use it... I shoot all my photos with a traditional camera and upload them to the website. It might sound silly, but I'm approaching it like Pokemon - gotta catch em all! I'll identify some taxon and then try to go get as many species as possible. For example, I'm now aware of at least 5 species of Sea Urchin local to me - I've got 3 on iNat. I've seen the other 2, but didn't get a photo, but I know how to find them so I'm headed back out. I didn't even know there were at least 5 here, let alone be able to name them. It's intellectually really addicting.... Something that surprised me is how many subspecies there are of checks notes everything! It almost seems like in the narrowest sense, almost everything is endangered (if you're considering subspecies and phenotype). Very interesting stuff. I promise I'm not a paid promoter!
  - flandish 4y ago
    Oh neat idea! I am most often mobile - but might try this approach. The Seek app is slow to start and has a warning dialog every time.
    - daveslash 4y ago
      Pro-tip: If you're uploading on the web browser and your pic doesn't have GPS coordinates, set the location before trying to identify the species. Setting the location helps the AI limit it's suggestions to the geographic area. Another buried feature is being able to view your observations and species in a tree view. Go to Dashboard -> Profile -> Species (under your profile picture) Here's mine [0]. I really like how I can drill down the taxon tree and filter to see just species and/or observations at any level of the tree. Edit: Oh, and be careful if you're worried about metadata in your pictures. iNat doesn't strip it out. I actually kind of like that -- after poking around, it helped me identify my next camera purchase. But Somebody could totally dox me (well, de-anonify me) with the metadata in some of my pictures.... [0] https://www.inaturalist.org/lifelists/dolfindave?view=tree&tree_mode=full_taxonomy https://www.inaturalist.org/lifelists/dolfindave?view=tree&t...
      - flandish 4y ago
        Ohh cool. Thanks for the insight! Yeah a photo in a park is fine… a photo in a home, maybe different lol.
        shagie 4y ago
        When I've done GPS stuff with photos in houses, I've lopped off decimal digits until the circle which it represented was sufficiently large enough. I typically lop to one decimal digit to give "close enough, but not exact". http://wiki.gis.com/wiki/index.php/Decimal_degrees http://wiki.gis.com/wiki/index.php/Decimal_degrees
        daveslash 4y ago

favaq 4y ago

Is there any website or app or something that by inputting where I live it gives me a list of wildlife (like insects) that surround me? I've been seeing the same bugs, birds, etc my entire life and I can name practically none of them.

flandish 4y ago
Try the Seek app! It’s real good at the job of going from pic to species!
dendrite9 4y ago
The inaturalist one lets you filter by what is near you as well as family, genus, kingdom etc. I wish it were easier to see for example what trees, spiders, algae and birds are in my area but that is probably a weird niche request. I used the local search to figure out what trees we saw near the shore in a place where the salt and wind stunted them beyond immediate familiarity. Especially cool is seeing the mushroom and fungi people find around where I live.
pvaldes 4y ago
Books are more reliable in nature than phone reception

mijoharas 4y ago

Oh, this is great! I use the Cornell bird app from time to time, but having something for plants and insects as well sounds awesome!

ascotan 4y ago

This app is fantastic. It's great to get children to explore the outdoors. My kids also love to trick it by taking pictures of hamburgers which get misidentified as mushrooms. So it's both informative and entertaining.